Salmon Fishing

Lures Attractors and Bait Setups

In the Pacific Ocean there are eight or ten lures or bait setups that probably catch ninety percent of the salmon.

If you have these lures or equivalents in the popular salmon colors you are armed for action. In bait holders the Rotary Salmon Killer leads the pack. It is the small plastic clip with a diagonal fin on the side that makes it rotate. It comes in two sizes and several colors. In lures the most effective are the StingKing lure with the EChip, the Crocodile, and the Coyote. All of these come in a variety of colors and sizes. Some also come in glow in the dark which can be very effective.

Flashers and dodgers round out the important pieces of terminal tackle to attract salmon. Both of them attract salmon to your boat by putting out powerful vibrations in the water similar to the vibrations made by the tail of a charging salmon. These devices will pull salmon to your boat from up to thirty or forty yards away. Salmon detect the vibrations with their lateral line and are tricked into thinking your flasher is a feeding salmon. They will charge the flasher like a homing missile on a radar track. The new Pro-Troll HotChip and ProChip flashers are the world leaders in catching salmon. They include the EChip electronic nerve pulse generator. The flasher is hooked to your fishing line with a bait, lure, fly or hootchie trailing behind. For a full rundown on rigging flashers go to the Pro-Troll flasher rigging techniques in another part of this website. If rigged properly a Pro-Troll flasher will catch more salmon than any device on the market.

Lure colors can also be important. The most popular salmon colors are red, dark green, chartreuse, blue, white, black/white combo and chrome. One day one color may catch every fish and another day some other color may be the one. Salmon have a well developed color sensitivity in their sight. We recommend carrying a variety of the common salmon colors in the popular lures and bait setups. If you are in salmon and they are not biting, try different colors. This could make a huge difference in your success. The same color rules apply to flashers. Reds and greens are the most popular flashers. One flasher guideline is to match the water color with your flasher. Use a green flasher in green water, blue in blue water and red in brown water. If you are fishing deep (100 feet down or more) use whites, glows and the colors that will pick up as much light as possible. Chrome lures are excellent for salmon but be careful if you are fishing shallow (top 30 feet) and the bright sun is on the water. You can get a mirror reaction and spook the salmon.